A birding blog from a different perspective for Birders and Wildlife Artists to hopefully enhance your birding experiences and inspire creativity in your art through my birding narratives and images whether your mediums be wood, canvas, paper, metal or clay!

New England Coastal BIrds

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Massachusetts Northern Lapwing

Friday, November 23, 2012- Bridgewater, Mass.- The Northeast is now hosting several Northern Lapwings. It has been speculated that these birds were carried here by a rare North Atlantic high pressure system sending unusual westerly winds from the UK to the Maritimes and the Northeastern US. Lapwings have been discovered in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, on Nantucket, at Montauk, Long Island, New Jersey, Virginia and of course the two in Eastern MA.

I have been thinking about this species for over a week since the two Lapwings were found; one in Middleborough and one in Bridgewater. The area is only a short drive from our house, maybe we should take a ride. The bird in Middleborough was no longer being reported, but the Bridgewater Lapwing was still entertaining many birders! With the colder weather making an appearance this past week, I couldn't imagine the bird staying much longer with the possibly freezing ground. Around 10:00 am yesterday, a MASSBird post came indicating as of 9:00 am the Bridgewater bird was still present and giving good views.
The decision was easy; lets go! We left our house around 11:00 am. By 1:15 pm we were driving down Summer St. In the reports on MASSBird, the area was described perfectly: large fields on both sides of the road with some of the fields being grass, and some corn stubble. The area was very picturesque with the large fields spanning the long rolling hills-

With so much of the area blanketed with fields, where do we start? That''s easy....look for the birders!! We drove north down Summer St. until we found three birders getting out of their cars. They looked very perplexed obviously overwhelmed by the acres and acres of fields. I asked them if they had located the Lapwing, but they had just arrived, not knowing where to start. I suggested driving down the road a bit farther and look for the crowd. Just around the bend of the road, there they were, and they were on the bird!-

The Lapwing was at the north end of the corn stubble field. The bird was feeding just over the crown of the field about eighty yards out. The Lapwing facing us hiding behind a corn stalk. Even though our first look was partially hidden, the Lapwing was spectacular! Even at that distance, Jen and I got great looks at the bird as it foraged along the ground in the stubble.-

We watched the bird for five minutes, and then suddenly a gift! The Lapwing took off and flew around the end of the field making a quick circle........

.....bringing it closer to us within thirty-five yards as it circled the field past us; spectacular!!-

The Lapwing then landed close to the spot that it took off from.....

.....but much closer this time, about fifty yards from us! Talk about being in the right place at the right time!-

The Lapwing slowly walked back to the crown of the hill-

While we were watching the Lapwing, a flock of a dozen and a half Horned Larks flew in, a nice late day treat.-

The Lapwing eventually walked back over the top of the crown of the corn stubble making it difficult to see. It remained there until we left later in the afternoon.-

I have always considered the Lapwing one of my favorite Shorebird species. Even though we only spent an hour and a half with the Bridgewater bird, it was a very memorable day....especially when the bird flew around in front of us....that was incredible! I have carved a few Lapwings over the years, here is one I carved for a collector in Great Britain a few years ago.-

To view my last two reports "Crossbills and the Black-headed Gull" and "The November 10, Brookline Bird Club November East of Monomoy Pelagic trip" click on "Older Posts" below Right-

"The Art in Making Decoys"

My New Book- Available Now

Overview

This blog is a collaboration of Keith Mueller and Tom Robben. Our hope is primarily to provide birding field trip experiences along the New England coast. We are going to try our best to "capture" a tiny bit of the immense beauty and treasure of coastal nature and to share those days and places with others.

For many birders, their love of birding extends way beyond a check mark in a book. It is often the experience of finding that species in a special location that holds a special place in their hearts often driven by a personal quest wanting something more than just noting it.

For many (Avian) Artists, birding experiences ignite our passion and creativity. Being "inspired" opens the door to our creative process; and that creative process can lead us on a journey in endless directions! Inspired art projects a narrative. Its the artists job to tell it, and the viewer to absorb it.

Being an Avian Artist/Sculptor, species accounts, habitat structure, and the species itself are critical for a successful design and composition. With the type of work I and many others produce, the subject must be portrayed accurately and realistically. Often reference material is not available, and without accurate reference material the composition fails. In my birding narratives I try and "paint" as much information as I can surrounding the species for those that may be interested with possibly unfamiliar species and will hopefully benefit by a better understanding.

This I will try and accomplish through species anatomy, plumage, character and species traits, habitat and environment, and interaction with other sepecies. For these artists, I include many images of the species from as many angles and postures as I can. This may be redundant to many readers, but for the artist/carver/sculptor, a complete study of a species is essential.

Viewing the Images

Note that clicking on any photograph or other image will usually show an enlarged display of that image. Stretching the window will often then stretch the image to an even larger size. Clicking on the Back arrow/button will then return you to this blog (and use the Back arrow similarly if you have jumped to any other internet site).

Use The Archive Like a Table of Contents

Click on a post in the "Blog Archive" below to jump to that particular post. It was not possible to put all these posts onto one screen, because it would require too much vertical scrolling. Therefore, the posts are divided across pages, as listed in the blog archive below...

About Us

Keith Mueller, Killingworth, CT- I am a professional avian artist/sculptor for over thirty-five years. I have a deep passion for birds and their environments and glean much artistic inspiration from them. In fact, birds have made a very profound impact on my life; sculpting my career. Sea birds, waterfowl and shorebirds are my favoite birds, and are my main focus for my art. Watching seabirds whether on a pelagic trip, codfishing trip or "sea-watching" with a strong onshore wind are my favorite birding attractions. I spend many hours in the field studying birds, and am creatively inspired by their habits; from subtle behavioral nuances to their species specific complexities. I enjoy the challenge to find a balance between art, nature and reality. Samples of my art can be seen here: The Art of Keith Mueller (kmuellerart.blogspot.com)

My reports on this site are accounts of my birding adventures. Although this site is technically a "blog", I am NOT (really) a blogger, nor a writer. I just want to share my birding experiences and accounts from the day in hopes to inspire others to enjoy (possibly) new birding adventures . I also enjoy photographing birds very much, and the images I take are used for my art reference and studies. However, I am NOT a photographer, I consider myself a "picture-taker"! My camera equipment is standard for basic photography: Canon 60D (50D for back-up) with a Canon 100-400mm IS f/4-5.6 lens. I have a Swarovski 20/60x scope and it is fitted it with a Canon S95 camera with adapter for digi-scoping. For binoculars I have a pair of Leica Trinovid 8x42 (Thanks Jen-birthday gift)! I don't keep a list, and actually I don't have any idea how many species I have actually noted. To me, spending a day birding with my wife Jen at a beautiful location experiencing fascinating birds is about as good as it gets. The "adventure" of birding along the beautiful New England coast or on the sea is our motivation.

A Little Information about my Sculptures, Carvings and Decoys- I have been carving decoys for waterfowlers, photographers, researchers and collectors for all of my career. My decoys have floated, stood in fields and hung from trees on both coasts and many inland areas in between, and in the UK, Mexico and Costa Rica.

I have always been passionate about creating birds in wood, and it is exciting when their wild counterpart associate with them side-by-side; I brings a big smile to my face! Since so many of my Waterfowl, Shorebird and Wading Bird decoys have successfully lured in their counterparts over all these years, I have now taken my decoy art in a new direction. My newest decoy/bird related passion is to carve and deploy as many species of favorite bird decoys as possible with the hopes of capturing both the bird and my decoys together in the same images. Have you ever seen Shearwater, Fulmar, Skua, and Jaeger decoys floating a hundred miles offshore on a pelagic bird trip? Or maybe Puffin, Murre, Razorbill, Dovekie or possibly a Red-billed Tropicbird decoy(s) floating in the Atlantic? Search the blog archives and enjoy!

For my decoys, I use many wood species to carve them from local New England White Cedar, White Pine and Basswood. I also use Tupelo which I have shipped from North Carolina and Louisiana. Spanish Cedar and Mahogany from Central American Tree Farms are also choices of mine. To accomodate vulnerable areas such as long tails and delicate bills, I use a variety of strong local woods such as Holly and Dogwood, and imported woods such as: Greenheart, Zapote, Almendro, etc. for strengthening inserts. All my decoys are hand painted with the finest oil paints in the World: Old Holland, Robert Doak, and Jacob Ouillette. For more information regarding my decoys, carvings and sculptures, see my carving site listed above ( The Art of Keith Mueller )

Tom Robben, Glastonbury, CT - I started birding on my 7th birthday when my dear parents gave me binoculars and a bird book. I became active in the Scarsdale Audubon Society at 14, and the NY Linnaean Society at 19. I started birding mostly in NY and NJ, then in other states, and eventually overseas. I joined the COA, Hartford Audubon and the Brookline Bird Club since 2008.

I have been very lucky to be able to bird with many really top-notch birders, including my dear friend, the late Tom Davis. Partnered with Guy Tudor in 1972 to initiate the use of "Christmas Counts" to do the first Summer Bird Counts...